Resilienz der Verfassung

On January 17th, 2017, the German Constitutional Court modified its adjudication on party bans according to Art. 21, para. 2 Grundgesetz. Consequently, the German legislator amended Art. 21 Grundgesetz by adding a new paragraph, which now allows to exclude political parties from state financing subject to a corresponding rule of the Constitutional Court. The present contribution traces the idea of militant democracy in terms of political reasoning, constitutional history, and legal dogmatics. It points out some questions of interpretation regarding the new Art. 21 para. 3 Grundgesetz, while analyzing in how far the traditional concept of militant democracy with party ban as its most important instrument must be reformulated, depicting the new means of constitutional defense. The author suggests resilience as the new key concept of the Grundgesetz ready for defense.